candidates.dta

  This is a stata 12 format data file containing information on candidates in 
  the 2009 EP election, collected as part of the authors' European Parliament
  biographies project.  See the journal article for sampling information and
  summary statistics.

  CCODE                - Chapel Hill Expert Survey party code [string]
  COUNTRY              - Plain text name of candidate's nominating party's 
                         country [string]
  FNAME                - First and middle names (anglicized) [string]
  LNAME                - Last name (anglicized) [string]
  MEPID                - MEP ID number in EP's online database, if available
  		       	 at time of data collection (2009) [numeric]
  REGION               - PR list region/district name, or NATION for
  		       	 single-district elections [string]
  LISTNUM              - Candidate list position [numeric]
  PARTY        	       - Plain text name of candidate's party [string]
  CMPCODE      	       - Comparative manifestos project party code [numeric]
  PIRDEUCODE           - Providing an Infrastructure for Research on
  		       	 Electoral Democracy in the European Union (PIREDEU)
			 party code [numeric]
  INCUMBENT            - Incumbent candidate in 2009 EP election [dummy]
  candid               - Unique candidate identifier [numeric]
  heldelectpos         - Candidate listed any previous electoral position in
  	       	         biographical information [dummy]
  heldlocalelectpos    - Candidate listed previous local* electoral position 
  		       	 in biographical information [dummy]
  heldregionalelectpos - Candidate listed previous regional* electoral 
  		       	 position in biographical information [dummy]
  heldnationalelectpos - Candidate listed previous national* electoral
  		       	 position in biographical information [dummy]
  heldeuroelectpos     - Candidate listed previous European electoral (EP)
  		       	 position in biographical information [dummy]
  mepselec             - The number of MEPs actually elected from the
                         (possibly national) district [numeric]
  legitcons14          - Candidate held viable list position, defined as no
  		       	 more than 1 from elected positions on regional lists
			 and no more that 4 from elected positions on
			 national lists [dummy]
  
  * National elected positions are elected posts in nationwide
    legislatures or executives.  Local elected positions are
    legislative or executive posts at the municipal (e.g. town or
    city) level.  All elected positions in between the national and
    local level (e.g. state, county, region, department, province,
    district) are coded as regional.

parties.dta

  This is a stata 12 format data file containing information on
  national parties that competed in European elections, covering every
  EU country.  These data are drawn largely from the advance release
  (the dataset was compiled in 2010) of the PIREDEU Design Study -
  Providing an Infrastructure for Research on Electoral Democracy in
  the European Union (http://www.piredeu.eu/DC/index2.asp).  Variables
  are drawn from the candidate study, manifesto study, and contextual
  data.  We also merged in information on seat proportions from EPRG
  country reports.  We have included codebooks from the original
  PIREDEU studies in this directory, for reference.  In particular,
  the manifesto study codebook provides details how the per_v*
  variables were constructed.  There are 9 cases in this dataset for
  which we have manifesto data but no contextual data.  These cases
  are distinguished by missing country and country_code fields and are
  all for tiny parties or electoral alliances that were not considered
  competitive enough to collect contextual data on.

  country       - Plain text name of party's country [string]
  party_code    - PIREDEU code for the party [numeric]
  name_or       - Original language name of the party [string]
  name_en       - English language name of the party [string]
  v1_111stgroup - EP party group membership (PIREDEU contextual) [numeric]
  		  1 = EPP, 2=S&D, 3=ALDE, 4=GREEN/EFA, 5=ECR, 6=GUE/NGL,
		  7=EFD, 8=Independent
  v1_12		- Party in government/incumbent (PIREDEU contextual) [dummy]
  per_v*_110	- Percentage of quasi-sentences in party Euromanifesto
  		  relating to Europe, the European Community or European
		  Union, negative mentions (PIREDEU manifesto) [numeric]
  per_v*_108	- Percentage of quasi-sentences in party Euromanifesto
  		  relating to Europe, the European Community or European
		  Union, positive mentions (PIREDEU manifesto) [numeric]
  pro_anti_eu   - Positive EU-related quasi-sentence proportion minus
  		  negative EU-relate quasi-sentence proportion (PIREDEU
		  manifesto) [numeric]
  propseats     - Proportion of lower house seats held by the party in 2009.
  		  Based on European Journal of Political Research country
		  reports [numeric]
  v043_2avg     - Importance for EP candidate selection: national party 
  		  officials (PIREDEU candidate) [numeric].  This is the
		  within-party average and ranges from 1-5, in principle.
  v1_10		- Number of MEPs elected in 2009 [numeric]
  country_code  - PIREDEU country code [numeric]

activity.dta

  This is a Stata 12 format file containing MEP-level data on
  activities within the EP's 7th term, stratified by incumbency and
  (within our sample), national experience.  Experience data were
  drawn from the authors' EP Biographies project.  Activity
  information comes from the EP's online database
  (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/directory.html) which we
  accessed in late September 2013.

  firstname            - MEP's first name [string]
  lastname             - MEP's last name [string]
  mepid                - MEP id from EP database [numeric]
  speechcount          - Numbers of speeches given by MEP in plenary
  		       	 [numeric]
  reportcount          - Number of non-codecision reports where MEP acted as
  		       	 rapporteur [numeric]
  opinioncount         - Number of opinions reported by MEP [numeric]
  motioncount	       - Number of motions reported by MEP [numeric]
  declarationcount     - Number of declarations reported by MEP [numeric]
  questioncount        - Number of questions MEP posed during question time
  		       	 [numeric]
  codecisioncount      - Number of codecision bills MEP acted as a rapporter
  		       	 for [numeric]
  group		       - Group indicator [numeric w/label]
  		       	 1 - Confederal Group of the European United Left
			 2 - Europe of freedom and democracy Group
			 3 - European Conservatives and Reformists Group
			 4 - Group of the Alliance of Liberals and 
			     Democrats for Europe
			 5 - Group of the European People's Party
			 6 - Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
			 7 - Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists
			     and Democrats in the European Parliament
			 8 - Non-attached members
  country	       - Two-letter country indicator [string]
  incumbent            - Was the MEP and incumbent in the 2009 EP election? 
  		       	 [dummy]
  nationalnotincumbent - Indicates if MEP had previous national elected
  		       	 experience but was not an EP incumbent in 2009.
			 [dummy]
